Safety Of Meat And Meat Products In The Twenty-First Century

Product safety concerning meat and meat products has been highly regulated for over a century with an emphasis on government control, visual inspection and, more recently, microbiological testing of end products. Since the 1990s, more systematic approaches to food safety have gradually been applied across the meat industry; hazards, particularly in cooked processed meats and fermented meats, have been controlled adequately. While the hygienic quality of raw meat processing has improved considerably, the expectation that some meat products can be consumed with minimal cooking continues to result in disease. This chapter reviews the history of meat safety with emphasis on raw meat, cooked processed meats and fermented meats, and the application of systematic approaches to providing assurance of safety. It argues against the regulatory imposition of finished product microbiological standards, in favour of demonstrated process control.